


The silence was more comfortable, anyway

by BuzzingAerin626



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Autism, Character Study?, Comfort, I like playing with ideas of what platonic relationships can be, It's like comfort with essentially no hurt, Its really at most tired/comfort, Kenma has a shutdown, Kozume Kenma & Kuroo Tetsurou Friendship, M/M, Or not, a good healthy relationship, good communication, not named but like yeah, they deserve the best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:20:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27985254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuzzingAerin626/pseuds/BuzzingAerin626
Summary: Kenma has a shutdown. Kuroo comes over and is a gentle and comforting presence.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 4
Kudos: 72





	The silence was more comfortable, anyway

It wasn’t that Kenma lost his ability to understand words or anything. They just became hard to use. He could usually still think out sentences to say, but the act of physically uttering them out loud seemed exhausting. He could turn the words around in his head over and over and over again, but his tongue wouldn’t move, his lips wouldn’t open, his throat stayed closed. Trying to push past that barrier was overwhelming, so he didn’t try. The silence was more comfortable, anyway. If those around him needed to know, if they needed information from him, if they really cared, they could figure out how to communicate a different way.

There was a knock at the door. Kenma said nothing. He heard the doorknob turn gently, and looked up as the door opened with what seemed like hesitation. Kuroo peered in, giving him the opportunity to refuse his visit. Kenma starred, but continued to say nothing. Eventually, he simply looked back down at his game, which Kuroo took as the best invitation he was going to get.

Kuroo sat on the bed, leaning over to watch Kenma’s game from where he was sitting on the floor.

“Not talking?” Kuroo asked after a few moments of silence.

Kenma nodded.

“Do you want me to leave?”

Kenma shook his head.

“Touch?”

He shook his head again.

“Okay,” Kuroo said gently, as he settled into Kenma’s bed and pulled out his phone.

With Kuroo in particular it was easy. They had been friends for so long, it was inevitable for them to figure out how to work with the silence. Their techniques weren’t always flawless, and it had been work to get there, but it was working.

He was pretty sure that the first time he went non-verbal with Kuroo, when they were eight, Kuroo hadn’t even noticed. They were both quiet and shy to begin with, so Kenma not talking wasn’t particularly dramatic. It wasn’t until what he recalled as being a pretty severe shutdown that Kuroo noticed the difference. Kenma explained it to him a few days later, as best as he could given his understanding at that point, and the two kept building and trying different ways of working with it since.

After about half an hour of silence, Kenma playing on his switch while Kuroo watched youtube on his phone, Kenma started scooting over towards the bed. At first the movement was barely perceptible, at most looking like small adjustments to his posture. But eventually Kuroo definitely couldn’t deny that Kenma was getting closer to the bed, and finally he was leaning against it. Without looking up from his game, which seemed to be playing a cutscene, he reached out and felt around the bed. Kuroo watched him, and reached his hand out to meet the other’s. Kenma took the hand, placed it gently on his shoulder, and went back to playing as the scene on the small screen ended.

“Would you like me to rub your shoulders?” Kuroo asked quietly.

A nod.

Gently, Kuroo massaged Kenma’s shoulders. It was done less with the intension to work out the knots in his shoulders, and more to display gentle physical affection that wouldn’t be too overwhelming.

“Can I kiss your head?” He asked after a few minutes.

Another nod.

Kuroo leaned down and kissed the top of his head right in the divide of his dark roots.

They sat like that a while, Kuroo nuzzled into Kenma’s neck, or playing with his hair, watching Kenma play.

Eventually, the sun began to set, the lighting in the room becoming golden. As it got slowly darker, Kenma started fidgeting a bit more. He seemed like he was trying to do something, but holding back. Kuroo let go of him, a quiet invitation for Kenma to do whatever he wanted to to be comfortable. In response, Kenma put down his switch and climbed into bed, pushing Kuroo gently so as to make him lie down next to him. They got under the covers, and Kenma took Kuroo’s arm to wrap it around his waist.

They lay there, still ever quietly, until the room was completely dark. The light was off, the sun set, but Kuroo had to remind himself that that didn’t mean it was time for bed.

“Kenma, we need to eat supper.”

Kenma shook his head.

“Kenma c’mon, you need to eat...”

Kenma turned around just to dig his face deep into Kuroo’s chest, pulling him in closer.

“Foooood,” Kuroo tried to coax the smaller boy out of bed, but Kenma was stubborn. Slowly, with kisses on the forehead and promises of more cuddles, Kenma allowed himself to get dragged out of his room.

His parents weren’t downstairs, having gone to bed after they ate supper. The house was left to the two boys. Kenma sat at the kitchen table quietly, while Kuroo served them the food that was left out on the stove.

“Do you want me to tell you about my day?” Kuroo asked.

A nod.

“Okay, well...” Kuroo began telling him about his day including all the menial details. He talked about his classes, the gossip he overheard, what Bokuto had texted him that day, the memes in their volleyball groupchat that he knew Kenma never opened. He talked about everything he could think of, watching Kenma nod along to his words, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

After supper, Kenma got up, clearly slightly more energized, and started doing the dishes. As he did, Kuroo came behind him and wrapped his arms around him.

“Do you want me to leave? I don’t mind staying if you want me to...”

Kenma paused a moment, before drying his hands and holding up two fingers, a non-verbal _the second one_ , and holding Kuroos hands tighter against his waist. After a pause, he took out his phone, and in their text conversation, typed out,

> **To: Kuro**
> 
> if u dont mind
> 
> **To: Kuro**
> 
> u dont have to

He showed his phone to Kuroo so he didn’t have to get his out of his pocket. Kuroo just smiled and pulled Kenma closer.

“Of course I don’t mind, silly,” he said softly before lightly kissing the top of his head.

They finished the dishes before going back upstairs. The light of the bedroom was still off, and without making any indication that he wanted that to change, Kenma simply climbed back into the bed. Kuroo followed, getting under the covers and letting Kenma wrap himself around him. Kenma’s hand wandered down until it met Kuroo’s phone, still in his pocket, and he patted it, looking at Kuroo expectantly. Kuroo just chuckled, pulling it out and setting up a youtube video from a creator they both liked. He lay the phone down on the bed, neither watching but both listening to whatever ridiculous antics were happening on the device.

They lay there a while, Kenma’s arms around a sleeping Kuroo, and he thought about their childish ways of communicating, or trying to communicate, when they were kids. Days of using PictoChat on their old DSs or trying to create their own secret language of taps and hand signals. Not always perfect strategies, certainly, but always sincere and earnest in their attempts.

He didn’t notice he was dozing off until Kuroo’s climbing out of bed shook him awake. He reached out to the boy standing now next to the bed, making ridiculous grabby-hands to silently beg him to come back.

“I’m just going to the bathroom I’ll be back I promise,” Kuroo assured him as he reached down to gently caress the top of the other’s head.

Kenma was vaguely aware in his sleeping state when Kuroo came back and wrapped him in his arms, but after that, he let himself fall into a deep, deep sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading <3   
> This fic means a lot to me   
> Comments welcome and even encouraged


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